454 SCOLOPAClDiE. 



other authorities, that the Spotted Sandpiper is a visitor to 

 the Continent of Europe, but the Editor is unable to find 

 any convincing evidence of the correct identification of the 

 specimens said to have been obtained. MM. Vian and 

 Marmottan (Bull. Soc. Zool. Fr. 1879, p. 248), among the 

 list of rarities obtained exclusively in France, cite an adult 

 male T. macidarias killed on the 22nd April, 1875, at 

 " Spire, Baviere rhenane " (!) ; and Mr. Gatke informs the 

 Editor that he believes in the authenticity of one shot on 

 Heligoland in May, 1840, and sent to Hamburg before he 

 collected. 



The Spotted Sandpiper has a very extensive range in 

 North America, breeding from Labrador to Texas, and from 

 the shores of tho Atlantic to the mouth of the Yukon, It is 

 found up to an elevation of 8,000 to 9,000 feet, and even to 

 the shores of the lakes near the end of the forest-growth. 

 In October it leaves the Northern States and passes south- 

 wards for the winter, visiting the Bermudas, the West Indies, 

 and Central and South America as far as Brazil. The return 

 migration takes place in April, but, as observed by Audubon, 

 there is considerable difi'erence between the time of breeding 

 in southern localities such as Texas, and northern ones like 

 Labrador. During the breeding-season it inhabits the banks 

 of rivers and lakes, where its actions, habits, and food are 

 observed to accord so closely with those of our Common Sand- 

 piper in this country as to make quotation from American 

 authorities unnecessary. One extract from Audubon's 

 Ornithological Biography may be given, because it refers to 

 a power possessed by birds which has been doubted— that 

 of being able to move their eggs when danger threatens. 

 "My esteemed friend, Thomas Macculloch, of Pictou, Nova 

 Scotia, having transmitted to me a curious account of the 

 attachment of one of these birds to her eggs, I here insert it 

 with pleasure : — ' Being on an excursion to the Hardwood 

 Heights, wliich rise to the west of Pictou, my attention was 

 attracted by the warble of a little bird, wliich ajipeared to me 

 entirely new, and which proceeded from a small thicket a 

 short way off. Whilst crossing an intervening meadow, I 



